Just over a year after Kenya launched the world’s most drastic plastic bags ban, Droga5 and Borderland are supporting a Kenyan environmental charity’s ground-breaking attempt to build and sail a boat made from re-used plastic along the south-east coast of Africa.

The Flip Flopi expedition is a Kenyan environmental charity project whose aim is to build and sail a boat made from re-used plastic waste.

To highlight the benefits and potential of re-using plastic, the charity is turning 60 tonnes of plastic waste into a 20-metre dhow that will be able to sail 5,000 km from Lamu in Kenya to Cape Town in South Africa to highlight marine plastic pollution.

Borderland went out to Kenya to capture the amazing and unexpected reaction from innovators all over Kenya. One group of local fisherman in Lamu are building a giant sailing ship entirely from plastic waste. They embody the spirit of how Kenya is leading the way in the area of plastic waste.

Simon + Ben, Directors of the film commented:

“When we arrived in Kenya it was hard to ignore the scale of the issue blighting their rivers, towns and beaches. It was disturbingly familiar, these scenes have been all over the news this year and images of vast islands of plastic in the Atlantic have left everyone feeling powerless.

For this project we wanted to find people who were doing something positive and creative with plastic waste, unique stories which could show us that there is another way of looking at this.”

Ben Morison, Founder of the Flipflopi Project, commented:

“The Flipflopi Project has always been about encouraging change in a positive way, making people smile first and then sharing the very simple message that single-use plastics really don’t make sense. To create the Flipflopi boat we used only local available resources and low-tech solutions, enabling our techniques and ideas to be copied without any barriers. So we hope people around the globe are inspired by our beautiful multicoloured boat and find their own ways to repurpose ‘already-used’ plastics.”

One year on, the authorities are claiming victory and other East African nations including Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan, are considering following suit. You can watch the documentary on their channel below.